“Take a plane”, they said. “It’s quick”, they said.

After a series of delays at Dubai, I emerged from Bangalore airport at 0001 local time on Monday morning. Having been at Manchester airport at 1700 local time on Saturday, you can imagine I was pretty knackered. Thank heavens Yasso and mates were there to hustle me into the car (I got weird looks from them when I snapped my seatbelt on). We still went for a chicken biryani at the Taj Westend, and it was wonderfully topped with fried onions and served with lentils and raita like it should.

Ok, I’m here now, the smells and sounds are old friends. It’s quite dusty, and I’m noticing things that, as a kid, were all part of the environ to me. Things are quite a bit dearer than I remember, and the surprising thing is I expected prices not to have risen. Duh!

The roads are beckoning, familiar and overwhelming. Bangalore has one-ways and overpasses now, and you can’t ride up on to the pavements to overtake anymore. Hehehe. Good to know though that at night stopping at red lights is still user-optional; as long as there is judicious use of a blaring horn you’ll be a-ok.